Plane crash injures former prosecutor Farnell, kills wife

March 5, 2014

Updated March 7, 2014 12:07 p.m.

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Attorney Richard Farnell, second from left, ponders a legal point while the serial killer he helped convict, Rodney Alcala, observes, at right. The group was outside the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana in April,1980. Farnell was critically injured in a plane crash near Truckee Monday in which his wife Darla Sue Farnell, 55 was killed. FILE: LORREN AU, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Richard Farnell, a former deputy district attorney in Orange County is shown representing a client in a repressed memory case in 1993. Farnell was critically injured in a plane crash near Truckee in which his wife Darla Sue Farnell, 55 was killed. FILE: LEONARD ORTIZ, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Attorney Richard Farnell leaves the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana during the Alcala trial in a file photo from April,1980. He was critically injured in a plane crash near Truckee Monday in which his wife Darla Sue Farnell, 55 was killed. Farnell is known for obtaining the first conviction against serial killer Rodney Alcala. FILE: LORREN AU, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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An ambulance with the victim of a small plane crash approaches California State Highway 267 in Truckee, Calif., on Monday, March 3, 2014. Rescuers say a woman died and her husband was critically injured when a single-engine plane crashed a few miles from California's Truckee Tahoe Airport. Placer County sheriff's Capt. Jeff Ausnow says 70-year-old Ray Richard Farnell, the pilot, was hospitalized in Reno Monday night, and his wife, 55-year-old Darla Sue Farnell, was pronounced dead at the scene. Marilyn Newton, Reno Gazette Journal

Attorney Richard Farnell, second from left, ponders a legal point while the serial killer he helped convict, Rodney Alcala, observes, at right. The group was outside the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana in April,1980. Farnell was critically injured in a plane crash near Truckee Monday in which his wife Darla Sue Farnell, 55 was killed. FILE: LORREN AU, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

A former Orange County lawyer, who successfully prosecuted the notorious 1970s serial killer Rodney Alcala among dozens of other criminals, was recovering Wednesday after a small plane he was piloting went down in snowy terrain on a Placer County mountain peak. His wife died in the crash.

Richard Farnell, 71, whose courtroom skills and passion for flying were known among friends and colleagues, was rescued Monday from the wreckage of the single-engine Piper PA-46 Malibu and taken to a Reno hospital. The extent of his injuries wasn't known.

His wife, 55-year-old Darla Sue Farnell, was found dead at the crash site 8,000 feet up Martis Peak, about 4 miles southeast of the Truckee Tahoe Airport, said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Ed Weiss, a spokesman from the National Transportation Safety Board, said Richard Farnell had contacted the traffic control tower to land but then called it off. Placer County Sheriff's Office received a call at 11 a.m. from the Oakland Air Traffic Control Center about a plane crash. Rescuers on snowmobiles found the couple inside the plane buried in snow an hour later, officials said.

The cause of the crash wasn't known; the FAA and the NTSB are investigating what caused the crash.

The plane had taken off from John Wayne Airport about an hour and a half before the crash.

The Farnells, who live in Lake Tahoe, had flown to Orange County on Feb. 27 to visit relatives ahead of his 71st birthday on Tuesday, according to his former wife Claudia Darr of Irvine. Before moving to Lake Tahoe eight years ago, the couple lived in Laguna Beach. Darla Sue was Farnell's fourth wife.

Farnell was a deputy district attorney in Orange County from 1968 to 1981. He prosecuted several high-profile murder cases and was the first to secure a conviction and death sentence for Alcala, a freelance photographer in the 1970s and a serial killer who would later be convicted in the murders of a 12-year-old Huntington Beach girl and four Los Angeles women.

“Rich was a fine and dedicated prosecutor, and a good friend,” District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said in an email. “I'm praying for him and very sorry to hear about the loss of his wife.”

Despite having tried more than 100 felony cases as a prosecutor, Farnell had told reporters previously that the case always stood out in his mind.

Before additional victims were linked to Alcala years later because of DNA evidence, Farnell told a reporter in 1980, “From what I know of Mr. Alcala, there are probably more victims we don't know about.”

When he left the District Attorney's Office to start a private practice in Newport Beach in 1981, he said, “There ought to be a special place in hell for people like Rodney Alcala.”

“His presence in court was extraordinary,” said Barry Simons, a criminal lawyer from Laguna Beach. “He was the kind of guy you had to think twice about going up against. You had to evaluate your case carefully before going to trial. You could be assured he wouldn't make a mistake.”

Darr, who was married to Farnell while he was a prosecutor, said he always has been dedicated to his work and at that time spent every Saturday working. He was a perfectionist.

“He always said he wanted to be the ‘cowboy in the white hat,'” said Darr, who is the mother of one of Farnell's daughters.

When he wasn't working, Farnell loved to fly. He was known to joke about once flying from John Wayne Airport to Long Beach to go to a dental appointment in Huntington Beach rather than driving on I-405, she said. Licensed as a pilot in 2004, he became a flight instructor.

“On a weekend morning, instead of having breakfast in our beautiful Laguna home, we'd fly to Big Bear for breakfast,” Darr said. “Instead of driving, we flew to Apple Valley to visit my parents. He was fiercely passionate about being a pilot. He wasn't afraid to fly in any conditions.”

“I’m devastated that Darla is dead,” said Darr. “In the last couple of years my daughter has bonded with her. I feel horrible for her family. She has two kids in their twenties that just lost their mother.”

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